Christmas Island ~ Island paradise lost
Christmas Island’s Greta Beach should be one of Australia’s most prized stretches of sand and a haven for nesting green sea turtles. Instead, it is silently choking on a tsunami of plastic waste.
For several months of the year, Greta Beach, 350 kilometres south of Indonesia, could be mistaken for a remote holiday paradise. But during the dry season, and especially from the beginning of June to the end of August, Indian Ocean currents bury the beach under tonnes of plastic. Much of it is rubbish carelessly discarded by consumers who live thousands of kilometres away.
Greta Beach is a vital nesting ground for green sea turtles –
It is one of the few locations where they can lay eggs year-round.
Increasingly, however, the waste smothering this beach makes nesting difficult, according to Lin Gaff, who has been volunteering with Island Care for 25 years.
The female turtles struggle over an obstacle course of sharp plastic, nylon ropes, discarded shoes, bottles, and styrofoam remnants.
It is a desperate effort to find sand deep enough to incubate their eggs. Most of the time, they hit plastic debris.
“It’s a constant battle for them. It’s heartbreaking to see all of their attempts fail,” Ms Gaff says.
If the eggs survive, tiny hatchlings struggle to reach the sea beyond the mountains of rubbish surrounding them. Many do not survive the climb over the unnatural objects trapping them.
Ms Gaff says community beach clean-ups are “never-ending” because the tides never cease.
“You can remove thousands of kilos of plastic and the next day it’s back. It’s just insidious,” she says.
Christmas Island sits south of Indonesia
In 2025, environmental group the Tangaroa Blue Foundation gathered 2.8 tonnes of rubbish from Greta Beach during clean-ups — more than double the amount collected in 2023.
The foundation, which focuses on removing marine litter and finding solutions to prevent it, then transports the waste to the island’s inland rubbish tip.
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Our Amateur Radio DX Expeditions are now online
Stories and images of our 5 expeditions around the world aboard the SY BANYANDAH
1/ 1978 Mellish Reef – Coral Sea VK9ZR
2/ 1979 Spartly Islands – South China Sea 1S1DX
3/ 1981 Kingman Reef – Pacific Ocean AD0S/KH5K
4/ 1981 Tokelau Reef – South Pacific ZM7ZR
5/ 1982 Mellish Reef – Coral Sea VK9ZR
Kingman Reef mid-Pacific on Equator
1982 Mellish Reef – Coral Sea